Although the AGE reports that Evonne Paddison had nothing to say about the cartoon which has sat atop the most viewed list of the AGE today.

ACCESS did take a break from deleting sections of their website to issue an apology (below).

This apology is full of excuses, the worst of which is this:

The cartoon series was developed by an external cartoon artist and ACCESS ministries distributed the publication on his behalf, via its website.

This statement gives the impression that what is on ACCESS’s website is has little relationship to ACCESS Ministry.  ACCESS is not EBAY … it is not AMAZON. ACCESS does not operate as a market place that sells things for others.  Does Evonne Paddison really want us to believe that she and the staff in charge of ACCESS MINISTRY did not personally manage the selection of inventory and content on the ACCESS Ministry’s website?  ACCESS was selling the cartoons on its webpage, BECAUSE the material was consistent with the message and values OF ACCESS.

The above screen shot shows clearly that the cartoonist conveys permission to ACCESS to sell the materials.

Lastly, the “cartoonist” is not some random guy that Evonne Paddison never met.  The cartoonist is described thusly:

… assistant curate at ______________ (an anglican church in Melbourne area) [he has studied for a]  Bachelor of Ministry and Theology at Ridley College Melbourne and at Moore College Sydney.  He is married to … a Deacon in the Anglican church … [he] has a passion for teaching the word of God, as well as seeing how the Scriptures can be brought to impact everyday living. As a cartoonist, he has made comic books and animation along Christian themes

Evonne Paddison, personally knows the author of these works, he attended the Seminary where she taught, he is a member of her church, and if anyone believes that she only got around to checking out what this material contained when some nasty blogger who happens to be a teacher raised a fuss … well I have a large desal project in Coober Pedy that perhaps you’d be interested in buying.

In addition to using most of her apology to promote her program, and making numerous statements to minimize responsibility for something that isn’t even remotely defensible, she “blames the cartoonist” … were were doing it FOR HIM.  Not really our fault.  Not only is this not true, the cartoonist couldn’t be more “cut from the cloth” if Philip Freier himself had composed it.  This is the same group who is in charge of sending 4000! volunteers who they train in 8 hours to teach preps how to pray.  All we get is statements to the effect of “well its not our fault”.

Lastly, though Evonne’s note makes numerous “reservations” … she ends it by saying she apologizes “unreservedly” … sorry Evonne, you can’t end an apology full of reservations by saying you are making none.

To quote Lyle Lovett:

Who keeps on loving you, when you been lying, said things that just wasn’t true?

God will, but I won’t, God does, but I don’t.

And that’s the difference between God and me.